The significant consumption of gas in the World results in the emission of greenhouse gases into atmosphere. Abadan refinery has always been the biggest and oldest oil refinery in the Middle East and has a variety of refined products. After six months of collecting data about pollutant concentration emitted from a stack of old furnaces of units 75 and new unit 200, the emission factor of the pollutant was calculated. The result showed that the emission factor of some hazardous pollutants emitted from old unit 75 was tremendously higher than that of unit 200. This study suggests the installation of a forced fan to provide the excess air and a feed temperature controlling system to control fuel gas consumption. These would make the fuel combustion complete and decrease its consumption. Meanwhile, further results showed that the renovation of unit 75 could lead to a significant annual reduction of some pollutants such as CO, H2S, and CxHx to 66 ton, 3 ton, and 800 kg, respectively; this would increase the emission rate of pollutant SO2 up to 150 ton annually. Finally, the new data of pollution coming from unit 75 were compared to pollution standard at American refineries. Results showed that the emission factor of most pollutants were below the American standard limits. However, the emission factor of sulfur dioxide emitted from upgraded furnace of unit 75 surpassed the American standard values. Fuel gas needs to be free of hydrogen sulfide in order to decrease SO2 emission in unit 75. It is predicted that the renovation of other 11 old furnaces belonging to Abadan refinery will result in significant decrease of pollutants CO, CxHx and H2S up to 320, 94 and 76 ton annually.

Graphical Abstract

Highlights

New and old furnace of vacuum units in Abadan refinery was examined

Calculated and compared emission factors of pollutants coming from furnaces

Khodabandeh, E.; Pourramezan, M.; Pakravan, M., (2016). Effects of excess air and preheating on the flow pattern and efficiency of the radiative section of a fired heater in a petroleum refinery, Appl. Therm. Eng., doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.03.038.

Letters to Editor

GJESM Journal welcomes letters to the editor for the post-publication discussions and corrections which allows debate post publication on its site, through the Letters to Editor. Letters pertaining to manuscript published in GJESM should be sent to the editorial office of GJESM within three months of either online publication or before printed publication, except for critiques of original research. Following points are to be considering before sending the letters (comments) to the editor.

[1] Letters that include statements of statistics, facts, research, or theories should include appropriate references, although more than three are discouraged.
[2] Letters that are personal attacks on an author rather than thoughtful criticism of the author’s ideas will not be considered for publication.
[3] Letters can be no more than 300 words in length.
[4] Letter writers should include a statement at the beginning of the letter stating that it is being submitted either for publication or not.
[5] Anonymous letters will not be considered.
[6] Letter writers must include their city and state of residence or work.
[7] Letters will be edited for clarity and length.